PREVIEW: BELLE VUE v IPSWICH (ROWE MOTOR OIL PREM)

IPSWICH captain Danny King has been ruled out of the Witches’ ROWE Motor Oil Premiership trip to Belle Vue tonight (Monday).

King walked away from an horrific crash at Workington on Saturday but misses the match in Manchester due to lower back bruising.

He hopes to return at home to Sheffield on Thursday, with manager Ritchie Hawkins choosing to book Ryan Douglas to come in as a guest.

The Aces are at full strength as they look to maintain their good home form so far, in a repeat of last year’s dramatic play-off semi-final which was narrowly won by the Witches.

Manager Mark Lemon said: “It was a very frustrating night for us at Leicester (on Thursday) and all the boys know that we could’ve done much better than we did; the consolation was the aggregate point.

“Monday is our opportunity to set things straight, and what better way to do that than to put on another brilliant show against Ipswich, and none of us can forget last year’s semi-final.

“It was every bit of what a great speedway meeting is and we’ve already enjoyed a close encounter with them this year, and we’re excited to see what challenge they bring.”

Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “We have not been great at Belle Vue in previous years, we have had good spells where we have been in meetings like in the first half before dropping off.

“We have been there as a side enough times now and we need to be learning our lessons and improving and with the form we are in, we couldn’t go into it in a better position.

“It is early in the season, and we have got points on the board so there is no massive pressure on us, but we want to go there and carry on the run. We have the aggregate point to go for as well as the meeting, but the focus is on the meeting and the aggregate point will take care of itself.”

BELLE VUE: Brady Kurtz, Norick Blodorn, Jaimon Lidsey, Ben Cook, Dan Bewley, Connor Mountain, Connor Bailey.
IPSWICH: Emil Sayfutdinov, Jordan Jenkins, Adam Ellis, Ryan Douglas, Jason Doyle, Keynan Rew, Dan Thompson.
SCB Referee: Seth Perkin.

*LIVE STREAMING: https://watch.britishspeedway.co.uk